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"The facts in this case were never going to sustain the legal argument that the prison authorities had acted in breach of the requirements. Not even luck could save the day," writes legal columnist HUGH SELBY.
"The court's decision is disappointing to those of us who have fought for so long and so hard for recognition of the needs of our community and how best to meet them," writes a frustrated JULIE TONGS.
The woman, a sexual assault survivor with serious health problems, alleges her human rights were breached by the forced search
human rights violations of Aboriginal women more generally. While there are international legal instruments Australia endorses (like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), the government still makes little to no effort to uphold the rights of Aboriginal women in prison when it comes to self-determination and freedom from discrimination. Ultimately, the system as it stands is operating in a culturally unsafe way. Unnecessary strip-searches bring calls for inquiry For any woman who is detained in prison, strip sea...
AMC. Photo: Andrew Finch IN a six-month period, Aboriginal women at the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC) were more likely to be strip searched than non-Aboriginal women, according to information provided to the Melbourne-based Human Rights Legal Centre (HRLC). In the period from October 1 to April 30 there were 208, or one a day, on average, strip searches conducted on women. Of those 121 (58 per cent) were conducted on Aboriginal women despite the fact that during this period only 44 per cent of the women were Aboriginal. Of the 208 strip searches only three — 1.5 per cent — resulte...